Fresh from my last US Marine Corps figure I've decided to tackle this excellent 120mm figure by Alpine depicting a US Marine in 1943/44 in the PTO. The sculpting and the casting are absolutely superb. No flash and minimal clean up of mould seam lines.

A great opportunity to try my hand at the reversible Marine camouflage scheme. I've chosen the brown on brown scheme for the helmet cover, and will do the shirt in the green-brown scheme and the trousers in plain marine green.

Here's the head and the helmet painted in Josonja acrylics. I haven't done any oil washes yet but will do so once I've painted the flesh on the arms and hands.

I hope you like and as always I welcome any comments and suggestions.

Looking great so far, Tony. I didn't know you had this figure in your GA It's one of my favourite 120mm figures - great action pose and emotive face.

Looking forward to seeing more mate!

Hi tony,

Excellent work!! I'm doing the same figure!! I'll show you if you agree

Great stuff ! I heard the duck hunter camo is a tough nut to crack. Looking forward to seeing it

Very nice paintwork

Really like this one tony,will follow closely

This I'll be following Tony! I love this figure, but haven't dared to tackle it yet. Looking forward to your approach!

Face looks very nice, although the photos are sideways for me...(on iPad).

Cheers,
Adrian

Looks Good Tony
Whats the go with his eyes, they look different colours to me, bit of a David Bowie going on!!!!!
Ben

I was beginning to think it was me. It does look like one eye is blue and the other brown. Perhaps due to some shadow when you took the pic. Anyway, this Leatherneck is looking pretty good and I look forward to seeing your progress.

Joe

Cheers guys,

I started work on the green camouflage on the shirt last night, and boy is it tricky. The base colour of the camouflage, which is a washed out pale green is painted on, then highlighted and shaded. There are no fewer than five different colours (greens and browns) that must then be painted on, then each colour has to be highlighted and shaded. Then I had to paint the brown reverse camouflage pattern on the turned up sleeves and the inside shirt collar, which is made up of four colours (all various shades of brown), which also need to be shaded and highlighted.

By the time I got up from my chair it was 1.30am, I was cross-eyed and ready for the crash pit. I would have started earlier but The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was on TV last night and I'm a sucker for a good spaghetti western.

As for the eyes Ben & Joe, I can assure you they are blue in real life, but hey, the Bowie thing works for me. I assume its a lighting issue to do with my crappy photographic skills and not my painting skills.

Yeah, didnt think it was your painting, I know you too well!!!!!
Ben

Lovely work, Tony! Great start, my friend!

Eddy
http://www.bloggen.be/eddys_painted_figures/

Thanks Eddy, I appreciate your comments mate.

Here are the latest pics showing my efforts so far to replicate the USMC camouflage scheme. Not sure what you guys think of it so I'd be keen to get your thoughts. The trousers have been base coated but the colour will eventually be lighter before I shade and highlight.

Very great job Tony.

As I said before, i'm doing the same figure... I'll show you but ....you're the best coparated to me!!

Hi guys,

Latest pics attached.

I've decided to go with the camouflaged pants after all and I'm glad I did. Still much to do.

The arms and hands don't line up exactly so I have a few fit issues to correct before I can do the flesh areas.

I haven't started on the arms and hands yet and the wood work on the rifle will need some serious oil washing before its finished.

Tony all I would add is that where the cammo colours touch there is in some instances a thin line of the base colour separating them (see below)

.

As this is 120mm I think you can enhance parts of the cammo if this was 54mm I would say not to bother, but all that great work just needs blinging up. I would also try and fade the green it is giving the overall effect of being very jungley ( you know what I mean). Other than that a great effort hope to see the figure on a comp table soon....

As for the rifle have you tried the Vallejo smoke layered on it? Hope some of this at least helps.

Cheers Jimmy,

You make several very good suggestions and I will follow them all.

The point about outlining the camo is one that I was intending to do once I had finished applying all the colours. I do intend to add the thin lines to separate the blobs of colour where I can.

I also intend to fade the colour with appropriate shades and highlights and then weathering with pastels. Yes, it is "jungly" and I want to make it look a bit more faded and lived-in.

The woodwork on the rifle will have a series of washes applied and Vallejo Smoke is part of the recipe, including oil washes.

Hi Tony,

very nice job!! you work faster than me!!!!

Thanks Francky,

I spent about four hours last night painstakingly painting thin lines of base colour between all the different coloured spots on the camouflage. In some cases the lines are now too thick and will need to be refined. I've also reviewed Calvin Tan's excellent blog to see his version of this figure and use some of the colour charts details and use some of his pics for inspiration. Having gone this far, I don't want to take short cuts or rush this process.

Here are some more progress pics and the colour chart supplied by Calvin for anyone looking to replicate the USMC "duck hunter" camo scheme.

It seems to be a nice job Tony, but I really wish you'd get yourself a piece of kit designed to take photos.....i.e. a camera!
Your work deserves much better than the pics you've put up here mate...sorry if that sounds blunt, but those who know me understand I'm not very sharp.....cheers!!